Gay ‘Ready Steady Cook’ chef Ross Burden dies, aged 45

Celebrity chef Ross Burden has died at the age of 45.

Burden, who was born in Napier, New Zealand, was a self-taught cook who moved to the UK in the early 1990s and appeared on the final of the original UK edition of MasterChef in 1993.

He went on to become a popular part of long-running BBC cookery show Ready Steady Cook for around eight years – and also wrote newspaper columns, set up his own private catering company and even filmed a healthy eating video with Joan Collins.

In 2006, he appeared on an episode of X Factor: Battle of the Stars, in which Simon Cowell told him to “stick to his day job”, and in 2010, having returned to his homeland, he served as a judge on the first season of MasterChef New Zealand.

Burden worked as a model early on in his career and was once voted one of the UK’s most eligible bachelors. He later came out as gay.

Burden was diagnosed with leukaemia last year and passed away on July 1 after contracting an infection following a bone marrow transplant, Herald Scotland and the New Zealand Herald report.

He is survived by his birth and adoptive mothers, sister and extended family.